Monday, December 7, 2009

Christmas came a little early for the 17 players in the 6th annual Holiday Tournament. It was a festive atmosphere all around, from Ken MacDonald turning up without actually registering first, to Patrick Petz’s one green squash shoe and one red squash shoe, to the free flowing keg that never seemed to stop pouring, to Rich Stimson’s over-the-top reaction of getting the ‘Joker’ (bye) for his last scheduled match.

We had a number of new faces in this year’s event and a very wide variety of playing levels. The Holiday Tournament is set up to give everybody a chance to step on court with somebody they would normally never play against. It gives the lower ranked guys the perfect chance to experience squash and play a real game – without handicapping - against significantly stronger opposition.

For the first time since I can remember, nobody went through all 4 rounds without dropping at least one game. We also ended up with 3 winners – another first. Paul Van Tol won 7 of the possible 8 games, his one loss coming against Anthony Fracchia who is new to the squash program and will be one to look out for amongst the top levels of the Boasters League when he joins in for the second half. (Anthony also runs triathlons!) Stu Boynton and John Markus went into round 4 undefeated and played the last match of the evening. They ended up splitting one game apiece to both end up with 7 games, equaling Paul Van Tol’s total.

The gift table was again dominated with booze related gifts, but not to the extreme of years past. At least everybody stuck to the rules and kept away from the banned substances list! The jury is still out, but I am considering adding one of this year’s gifts to that list – a bright yellow DAC cotton t-shirt… anyone wearing that will be mistaken for a canary… or a banana…It was another successful event. And after Greg Davis had finished playing Andy Housey and no one got injured, or maimed, or killed, we can all thank Santa Clause for another Christmas miracle! So drink another beer, be thankful for your health, and get back to work deciding what fantastic and expensive gift you will all buy your squash pro.